Beginning to discover Montmartre - one of my favorite areas of Paris

Since I didn't get this blog done each day in Paris - there was just too much living to do to spend time writing and sorting hundreds of pictures from 4 photographers - I am going to split the entries into smaller more manageable entries. Still mostly chronological as we did it but each one will be only a smaller part of the day.

We started our first morning (and almost every morning) in Paris with breakfast prepared by Jacques and Helene, our B&B hosts. Every morning the table setting was a little different, each breakfast was a little different too - but all pretty typical French breakfasts. And yes, the croissants and bread were as good as you might imagine... miss that as much as anything.

Each morning we would sit at the table and plan our day if it wasn't already all decided. Sometimes Jacques gave us ideas or advice.  This day we decided to follow a walk outlined in a book Judy had found as we worked our way up the hill of Montmartre to Sacre Coeur. With that in mind we started off...

Just past the Moulin Rouge is Cafe des 2 Moulins - the cafe featured in the movie Amalie.  Last time we were in Paris, Bill and I ate lunch here and watched a steady stream of tourists take pictures... including us since we were outside.

There are so many plaques commemorating events or saying who lived in a building and here is one more - Vincent Van Gogh lived here with his brother Theo. I actually like seeing these because you are at least for an instant transported back in time and imagine Van Gogh walking in that door... Proud to say I can read the sign although many of the signs which were predominantly in French, I could only read a tiny bit. 

And we are there like we were going to go visit, right at that door....

People have written books about doors in Paris (and other places) and I can see why - this was a totally nondescript building but has a beautiful door. 

And obviously, something about the windows in the building especially appeals to me - when I got home and looked at it, I realized I had taken a picture of the same windows two years ago in Paris. 

The Moulin de la Galette - built in 1622 has been the site of a mill and restaurant and still is a restaurant - next time I'm in Paris I want to eat here. It was a well known place to go to eat, where the bread was made from flour milled by the windmill and was immortalized in paintings by Renoir, van Gogh and Pissaro. We saw Renoir's painting in the Louvre. 

 

Renoir's painting of a party at the Moulin de la Galette

Saturday - Paris by Strava (biking app) - long but mostly pictures

Arrival in Paris was about 8:30 AM and we took a regional train and metro to rue Blanche and our apartment.

After getting settled in our apartment and resting a few minutes to make sure wifi worked

Walking out of our apartment we were greeted with this truck with its ladder on our roof. Did not find out what had happened.

So, off to walk the 2.5-3 miles to our bike ride.
In the distance is Trinite Church.


This was the view from the restaurant where we ate lunch - La Rotonde Trinite

Salad Nordique

Lapin confit

The opera

Boats on the Seine

Tulleries



By the Louvre

The bike ride


Near Victor Hugo's house

Along the Seine with Notre Dame in the background



Not sure what we were doing but the series of photos was interesting



Very old Parisian Street

We had a half hour stop for lunch and decided on this place and to have beer and some appetizers. The waiter assured us it was quick and we would have plenty of time. But he still gave us a disgusted look when we asked for the check right away so we could hurry out....




The Louvre on the bike tour




Olivier our very good your guide!

Le Chatelet

And the end of the bike tour - we all got different mileage on Strava because we all had paused at various times and forgotten for some distance to turn it back on on our iPhones. But it was a little over 8.1 miles...if you are curious to see the map of the tour - look here. http://tinyurl.com/cgg24fc
A few interesting things on the way home - there are lots of these little electric cars but this one is a rental car that guides you on a narrated tour.

I imagine this guy was hoping for donations like a street performer? He would stop for photos, wait awhile and move on.

Ok, this feels long - you should have felt how it was for us - after not sleeping much the night before... We ate down dessert in the Île de la Cité area.

French Coffee

Tort Tatin - pretty sure it's peach and very good

Tort au citron - lemon meringue

Of course Bill (and Kevin) had mousse au chocolat

We decided to walk to a bus stop and take the bus most of the way back to near our apartment and got to bed fairly early.
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